Blogger Roy Ngerng takes down blog post about PM Lee

SINGAPORE - Blogger Roy Ngerng has removed a blog post accusing the Government of "misappropriating" CPF funds, a day after he was asked to do so by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's lawyer.

The health-care worker said he took down the blog post on Monday night, but is still deciding how he should respond to a letter of demand sent to him from Mr Lee's lawyer.

Mr Ngerng said on Tuesday his lawyer M. Ravi would be meeting with Mr Lee's lawyers to discuss the issue.

In the meantime, he has published another blog post with the headline Your CPF: The Complete Truth And Nothing But The Truth, which he said would show Singaporeans "once and for all" how CPF funds are being used.

In the letter of demand sent on Sunday, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh had asked Mr Ngerng to remove a blog post with the headline Where Your CPF Money Is Going: Learning From The City Harvest Trial, from his website The Heart Truths as well as two Facebook pages.

Mr Ngerng was also asked to post an apology on his website and compensate Mr Lee for damages.

If he does not comply by Wednesday, he will be sued for defamation.

His blog post, which he put up on May 15, compared a Channel News Asia chart detailing the relationship among City Harvest Church leaders prosecuted for misusing about $50 million in church funds, to another chart that he had created.

His chart sets out the relationships among the CPF, Mr Lee, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Temasek Holdings, GIC and other Singapore companies.

Mr Singh said the blog post "is understood to mean that Mr Lee, the Prime Minister of Singapore and chairman of GIC, is guilty of criminal misappropriation of the monies paid by Singaporeans to the CPF".

The "false and baseless allegation" constitutes serious libel against Mr Lee and "disparages him and impugns his character, credit and integrity", he said. "It is also clear that the article was published maliciously," he added.

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